The US Supreme Court on Monday shielded US investment banks from investors seeking to use anti-trust laws to challenge underwriting practices that became widespread during the technology stock bubble of the late 1990s.

In a 7-1 ruling the judges refused to let the investors sue 16 investment banks and institutional investors, including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, for allegedly working together to inflate the price of listings of some technology stocks before dumping them on an unsuspecting public.